1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to electronic devices with touch screen displays, and more specifically relates to devices with a pressure-sensitive touch screen display.
2. Background Art
Users interact with electronic devices that have touch screen displays, such as smart phones, in different ways. Most people use their fingers or thumbs most of the time, while some use a stylus. Apple, Inc. introduced a touch screen display in the Apple 6 phones that is pressure-sensitive, meaning a light touch on a pressure-sensitive graphic can cause a first action, a medium touch can cause a second action, and a heavy touch can cause a third action. This pressure-sensitive touch screen display is supported in the iOS 9 and iOS 10 by Apple that runs on Apple devices, and is called 3D Touch by Apple. 3D Touch is a trademark of Apple, Inc.
Different users use their devices in different manners. For example, some prefer to hold their phone in a portrait orientation, and scroll or select items on the screen with the thumb of the hand that is holding the phone. Some prefer to hold their phone in a landscape orientation, and scroll and select items on the screen with the thumbs of both hands. Two-handed operation is often preferred for typing text, such as when texting someone. Some prefer to use fingers instead of thumbs. People also use their devices in different orientations depending on the application they are using.
The different ways people use their devices may make using a pressure-sensitive touch screen somewhat difficult for some users. What a user intends to be a light touch could be interpreted as a medium touch. The orientation of the device comes into play, because a user holding a phone in portrait orientation in her right hand would likely produce different amounts of pressure depending on the location on the screen being touched. Thus, the user holding the phone in her right hand might touch an item close to the right edge with much less force than when touching an item in the middle or on the left edge of the screen. This is due to the anatomical features of a person's hands. Thus, a user may touch an item on the right side of the screen intending a medium touch, but the device recognizes the touch as a light touch, which is not what the user intended.